Happy Friday, Polygon readers!

Each week, we round up the most notable releases new to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. This week he have some highly anticipated releases on Netflix, as well as some fantasy action and dystopian satire movies on VOD.

Nimona, the long-awaited adaptation of ND Stevenson’s celebrated graphic novel starring Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), is available to stream on Netflix, as well as a new psychological horror thriller starring Sarah Snook (Succession). The sci-fi horror comedy M3GAN is finally available to stream on Max, while the new Children of the Corn remake is now streaming on Peacock. On the VOD side of things, we’ve got the live-action adaptation of Masami Kurumada’s classic mythological action manga Saint Seiya starring Mackenyu (Rurouni Kenshin, One Piece) and Sean Bean, as well as a wild grindhouse-style spoof of the classic Swiss children’s story Heidi.

Let’s get into it!

New on Netflix

Nimona

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Fantasy adventure comedy
Run time: 1h 41m
Directors: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed

Inspired by ND Stevenson’s beloved 2015 graphic novel, this animated adventure comedy stars Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) as Nimona, a teenager shapeshifter who teams up with the knight (Riz Ahmed) tasked with assassinating her to clear his name of a crime and save her own life.

Run Rabbit Run

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: Daina Reid
Cast: Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre, Damon Herriman

Sarah (Sarah Snook), a fertility doctor, grows troubled by the strange behavior of her daughter (Lily LaTorre), whose mannerisms and personality begin to resemble that of her long-lost sister, Alice. As she attempts to understand the root of her daughter’s condition, Sarah is forced to confront her own beliefs about life after death as she processes the repressed trauma of her past.

New on Max

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed

Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

Image: Max

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: Stephen Kijak
Cast: Rock Hudson, Illeana Douglas, Carole Cook

This documentary delves into the career of Rock Hudson, one of the most iconic and celebrated leading men of Hollywood’s golden age, as well as his private life as a closeted gay man and his tragic passing in 1985 from AIDS complications.

Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Image: HBO

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 46m
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

In 2016, queer theater luminary Taylor Mac put on a one-time only, 24-hour show that went through the history of American popular music in extravagant fashion. Seven years later, we have a documentary about that day, following the exhilarating (and exhausting) process of performing for 24 consecutive hours, with all the costume changes, musical numbers, and audience interaction that show entailed.

New on Prime

M3GAN

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime

Image: Universal Pictures

Genre: Sci-fi horror comedy
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Allison Williams, Jenna Davis, Violet McGraw

The latest horror film from Housebound director Gerard Johnstone and Malignant screenwriter Akela Cooper follows Gemma (Allison Williams), a roboticist for a Seattle toy company who creates an artificially intelligent doll to look after her orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). But when the doll begins to commit a series of violent murders ostensibly in service of its prime directive, Gemma will have to fight to protect her niece and the world from what she has created.

From our review:

The graveyard of awful horror comedies is among the saddest and most boring in all of film. It’s filled with hundreds of bad-taste parodies, laughless messes, silly garbage, and probably a few unfortunate movies that weren’t deliberately designed to be laughed at. The worst movies in the subgenre feel like tightrope acts that try too hard to balance what the creators seem to think are two opposite extremes, hoping the audience laughs one moment and screams the next. But following in the footsteps of classics like the original Chucky movie Child’s Play, director Gerard Johnstone and the team behind the new horror comedy M3GAN realize that laughing and screaming aren’t actually that different — and most importantly, that either one can be the key to a great time.

New on Peacock

Book Club: The Next Chapter

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

Image: Focus Features

Genre: Comedy
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Bill Holderman
Cast: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen

Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen reprise their roles as Diane, Vivian, Sharon, and Carol in the sequel to the 2018 romantic comedy Book Club. Meeting in person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the four friends travel to Italy to celebrate Vivian’s upcoming marriage.

New on Shudder

Children of the Corn

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: RLJE Films

Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Cast: Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey

Kurt Wimmer’s 2020 adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 short story centers on Boleyn Williams (Elena Kampouris), a high school girl who finds herself at odds with a psychopathic 12-year-old rallying the other children in her small Nebraska town to kill every adult who stands in their path. It is the 11th Children of the Corn movie, but it’s not connected to any of the previous ones.

New on VOD

Knights of the Zodiac

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $14.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Stage 6/Toei Animation

Genre: Fantasy action
Run time: 1h 52m
Director: Tomasz Baginski
Cast: Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Mackenyu

This mythological martial arts fantasy film based on Masami Kurumada’s manga Saint Seiya follows the story of teenage orphan Seiya (Mackenyu) who, after being recruited by a wealthy billionaire (Sean Bean), learns that he is destined to protect the reincarnation of the goddess Athena (Madison Iseman). Donning the armor of the Pegasus Knight, Seiya must do battle against supernatural forces in order to protect humanity from harm.

From our review:

[There are] two things for new viewers to enjoy: Bean and Janssen’s unfortunately brief performances, and short, erratic bursts of creative action. It seems like the people behind Knights of the Zodiac started by drawing on the worst part of the franchise, then kept making progressively worse decisions. The movie’s only saving grace is that there was once a ’90s live-action American TV pilot (only 19 seconds of which have survived), so Knights of the Zodiac at least can’t be called it the worst piece of Saint Seiya media ever made.

Showing Up

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Allyson Riggs/A24

Genre: Dramedy
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Cast: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, André 3000

Kelly Reichardt (First Cow) is a special filmmaker, the kind whose newest work is always appointment viewing. Her latest is Showing Up, about a sculptor (Michelle Williams) balancing her professional life with her personal one as she gets ready to open up a new how.

Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret

Where to watch: Available to purchase for $5.99 on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Dana Hawley/Lionsgate

Genre: Coming-of-age dramedy
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Cast: Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates

Judy Blume’s iconic coming-of-age story gets this adaptation from Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen), starring Abby Ryder Fortson (the original Cassie from the Ant-Man movies) as Margaret and Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Benny Safdie as her family.

Mad Heidi

Where to watch: Available to rent for $2.99 on Amazon

Image: Raven Banner Entertainment

Genre: Dystopian action adventure
Run time: 1h 32m
Directors: Johannes Hartmann, Sandro Klopfstein
Cast: Alice Lucy, Kel Matsena, Casper Van Dien

This action thriller reimagines the classic Swiss children’s story of Heidi into a gory grindhouse-style exploitation spoof. In a dystopian Switzerland ruled by a tyrannical cheese baron (Casper Van Dien), Heidi embarks on a violent campaign to free her country and avenge her murdered lover.

Love Gets A Room

Where to watch: Available to rent for $3.99 on Vudu

Image: Nostromo Productions

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 43m
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Clara Rugaard, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Mark Ryder

Inspired by a true story, Love Gets A Room is a real-time World War II drama that follows a Jewish actress caught in the Nazi occupation of Poland, and her theater troupe’s bold efforts to stage the play the movie derives its title from in the face of that occupation.

• SEO Powered Content & PR Distribution. Get Amplified Today.
• PlatoData.Network Vertical Generative Ai. Empower Yourself. Access Here.
• PlatoAiStream. Web3 Intelligence. Knowledge Amplified. Access Here.
• PlatoESG. Automotive / EVs, Carbon, CleanTech, Energy, Environment, Solar, Waste Management. Access Here.
• BlockOffsets. Modernizing Environmental Offset Ownership. Access Here.
• Source: https://www.polygon.com/2023/6/30/23773875/new-movies-watch-nimona-netflix-m3gan-prime-video-knights-of-the-zodiac